The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Thirteen

Six was surprised when Ekko took them to one of the Vatalia's old safehouses. He dismounted his board and carried her into the abandoned place before setting her down onto the couch.

"Why here?" she asked, pulling down her half-mask and taking her goggles off to rest atop her head. She began rubbing her swollen hip which was probably dislocated. She tested her theory, pressing her fingers and prodding the area to examine it.

Ekko pulled back his hood and unfastened the buckles on his mask, pulling it off to reveal his face.

They both stilled, looking at one another for the first time in over a decade without the boundaries of masks and goggles getting in the way.

Momo looked almost the same as when they were kids, her eyes still the same green as her brother's and her nose and cheeks still polka dotted with freckles. She had a few scars on her forehead and cheeks now, probably from all the gang work she'd involved herself in. Her hair was wild and excessively long, unlike during her childhood when she kept it mid-length and in braids. Despite this, she still looked like Momo, just in a woman's body now.

Meanwhile, Ekko had grown into a man. He was muscular and rugged, and he'd grown his hair out and dreaded it. During the war, he pinned his dreads into a bun and had since kept it as his usual hairstyle. He replaced the metal pins in his hair with Jinx's bullet shells he'd gotten from the safehouse—both of them decorating the same dread.

"It's as good a place as any," he said, looking from her face and to where she was rubbing herself. "Your hip busted?"

"Subluxation," she said casually as if expecting Ekko would know the medical term.

When he raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "It means my hip joint is partially out of the socket, but not all the way."

He internally cringed, the injury sounding to be a painful one to sustain. "...Is it serious?"

"Can be. You know how to adjust it?"

"No. And even if I did, you'd just try and run away afterwards." He leaned back against the table and gripped the edges of it, shifting the tone of the conversation. He wanted her to understand just how irked he was.

She bristled at his reluctance to help her. "Well, you're about to learn. You can't let an injury like this sit. It can damage my ligaments, and in worst case scenario I could lose my leg."

Ekko looked genuinely shocked, which quickly morphed into anger. "Yeah? Well, that's what you get when you become a criminal."

Six stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

"Fuck you, Ekko. Fuck you and fuck what you think. You don't know anything."

Ekko felt his indignation rise at her spiteful words. The Momo he'd known when they were kids would never say such spiteful words. She had changed, grown up into someone he was learning to despise. "I don't know anything because you won't tell me anything," he smoldered, his grip on the edge of the table intensifying. He knew confronting her would be difficult, but never did he imagine it to reach this extent.

"If you want answers you can start by helping me."

He glared at her, not trusting her attempt at negotiation. "And how do I know you won't up and run as soon as I do?"

"When did you get so dense? You think the pain is just gonna magically disappear after you pop the joint back in place? It's going to hurt like a bitch even after you adjust it. I won't be going anywhere for a while."

He pushed himself off the table and neared the edge of the couch, glaring down at her. "Why should I believe a word you say?"

"I suppose you don't have to believe me, but being the cause for my losing a leg isn't gonna help you get answers, Little Man."